Cello Lesson

I’ve been putting off writing these notes (and last week’s are ‘way overdue), but I really don’t have much to report. It was one of those very simple, and very profound, lessons. We spent most of the time just talking, and when we finally got down to work, I suggested we take a look at the current state of my thumb position.

Material: 1 octave D major scale in basic thumb position, thumb across the midstring harmonics on A and D. We repeated it a number of times with the primary goal being the achievement of a beautiful sound. Right bow speed, right pressure, right distance from the bridge (very close). And in the left hand we experimented with how much pressure I need to get a clear sound by pressing very tightly while bowing, gradually letting the pressure up until the sound broke. Turns out I really don’t need to mash the string all the way to the fingerboard.

So that’s my thumb position assignment: above all else, the sound must be as beautiful in thumb position as it is lower on the neck. Choice of repertoire up to me.

Cello Lesson

First lesson in three weeks, so of course I felt less than well prepared. We started off with a scale, but today I began with F for linked half notes, then T- asked for d in quarter notes, and finally Bb in eighth notes. I found that I needed more time to get oriented to the fingerboard than I had available with the faster notes. That is, with linked half notes, which are really whole note duration on each note, I have enough time to think of the next note coming so I don’t notice how much I need that time. I should surprise myself occasionally by jumping into a scale with a faster tempo to get a better handle on how well I really know it.

The other major comment was about how my sound when I am playing a whole note and thinking about it is so much better than when I play four quarter notes on a bow. They optimally should be the same, since I am using the same bow speed. T- suggested that that be a specific goal in my practice, and that when my ear tells me it’s not so I should pause to play a few whole notes to recalibrate and then continue.

He also had me try a kinesthetic exercise to help with that. I began by using my right elbow to “write” with, as though it was a big, fat magic marker. Gradually, I lowered my arm into playing position, then drew the bow while still imagining that I was writing with my elbow. It reminded me a lot of some Alexander Technique work I have done, thinking of leading with the elbow when moving my arm away from the body. T- also reminded me to think of my elbow diving back toward my body on each up bow. This improves the weightiness of the arm, while keeping the elbow pointed away effectively lifts the bow up out of the string. Effective, but undesired.

Next was Bach 2nd Suite, Minuet II. The only real technical difficulty I had was in the A section, shift from F on IV to D on II, then descending scale down the D string. Rather than awaiting instruction I started practicing that in a structured way, and I think T- was pleased. It really helped to clarify the positions – 3d position shifting to 5th – and I knew my hand pattern on arrival, whole half. Thinking about the positions contributes to my moving the whole arm, rather than reaching with the fingers to hit a particular note. Then the following notes are also more likely to be in tune.

That took hardly any time at all, so I also played the Gigue. There were just a few technical instructions.

• Play the droning quarter note D’s vigorously. Voicing the upper notes is not the point here.
• Since I am playing those eighth notes two to a bow, play them strong-weak rather than equivalently.
• The non-held note in a double stop should often be played as only an eighth note to facilitate fingering. There is one bar in each section in which that trick helped immensely. We spent a few minutes looking at the performance suggestions in the Alexanian edition, which were very useful in that regard.
• Make a big deal about the final arpeggio the second time through – after all, that’s the end of the whole suite.

Otherwise, all the coaching was to just play. T- really did seem to be happy when I went for it in spite of a few wrong notes, though that also meant that in general I was getting them pretty well. We did a bit of grinning (effective at keeping tension out of my face) and also focusing on what my right hand was doing. I didn’t think I was prepared enough to stop supervising my left hand, but was again surprised when the music improved as I shifted focus. I need to do that more often when I practice.

It was remarkable that we covered so much in one lesson, and quite unusual. More typically we do one or two phrases, not one or two movements. I’m pleased that I was able to figure out so much on my own during my preparatory practice, a real sign of growth while studying this suite over the last year and a half.

For next week? No specific assignment. We haven’t worked on the Allemande in a lesson yet, so I think I’ll switch my focus there while reviewing the other movements. That will be the last dance.

Cello Lesson

The theme of today’s lesson was playing fast. This is a continuation of what we ended with on the last lesson. So no scale today – after discussion of extraneous matters (which I’ll mention at the end) we jumped right into assessing my progress on my “Cello Gym” exercises.

First exercise. One finger flicks on the C string while resting unused fingers on G. We backed up and went through several preliminary exercises.

• swing-plops. Bring hand up from side, around, and hand down onto fingerboard with approximately even weight across the fingers.
• keep thumb behind neck. Use wrist hinge to lift hand and plop onto fingerboard. Begin by using finger plop to drive thumb away from the neck. Similar to child’s toy where you use a hammer to drive dowel through a board.
• same exercise, but work through a slight motion and return of the thumb to the neck, to keeping the thumb quietly on the neck with the finger plop.
• Next, change the axis of movement from the wrist to the MCPs. IOW, raise just the fingers and plop. Velocity drives the string down, but the weight of the arm keeps it there.
• Use this action to work each finger independently. Incorporate a small roll with the 4th finger. Come down from a big height. Third finger is the hardest. Concentrate on high, fast, flicking motion.
• Finally play the exercise. Do NOT pay attention to intonation initially – avoid all sources of extra tension (like thinking you are wrong!).
• Make sure I am taking time to relax in between. To play more slowly, keep the finger moving quickly, but take extra time between strikes to make sure muscle tension has been released.

Second exercise is Cossmann trill exercises. T- expressed concern that I can hurt myself if I do them incorrectly, so I demonstrated one and how I am doing it. These are all performed on the A and D strings, so are a nice break from C and G – a little lighter tension. I chose the one where 1 and 2 alternate slowly on the D string while 3 and 4 alternate quickly (trill) on the A string. Comments:

• Think of 2 loden coats on 2 hangers, representing the arm weighted equally on fingers 1 and 3. This sets the frame. The trick is the independence of the other fingers.
• Instead of focusing on putting the 4th finger down, think of taking the 4th finger *off* the string. Lifting instead of pressing. If necessary, change the beaming so that the trill is starting on the upper note and therefore the first change that happens is that 4 comes off the string.
• Think first of accenting 1 and 3, then change to think of accenting the 4th finger coming off.
• Watch the thumb – no squeezing. T-’s comment – you’ll know you are doing it right when the endpin comes off the floor. There is a fair amount of force generated from the hand through the fingerboard and shoulders of the cello into the chest of the player, pushing the endpin forward on the floor.

Cello gym exercise #3: an etude by de Swert that T2- gave me ever so long ago, and which is great for working on speed. T-’s comment on first glance (this one was new to him) was that I need to be careful because this kind of exercise can lead to buildup of excess tension. Exactly! Precisely! I pulled it out again because I want to learn how to play it *without* building up tension.

• Look for places to relax, like downward scale fragments – peeling the banana.
• 4th finger trill sections – like in Cossman, think of taking the 4th finger away. Instead of down-down-down, think off-off-off
• Antonelli’s trill (?) – using the hand roll to facilitate the trill on the 4th finger
• tackle one part at a time, don’t play on and on. Stop before tension builds.
• Eventually, try it with the bowing variations. Viotti bowing, changing on weak beats, is especially a challenge.
• Put the notes in the right hand. Stare at the right hand while playing. May want to start initially with some pulsing in the right hand, like a fish swimming. Then just focus on the right hand instead of the left. (I have to say, that was the most amazing experience. Everything else totally relaxed while I was focusing on my bow hand. Even all that excess tension that creeps into my face. Another benefit to memorizing, I guess.)
• Give a little pulse to the first of the moving notes, and move the bow faster on the last set of four.

I started Duport #12 and Grutzmacher #9 to forcefeed a little E Major. It turns out that the latter etude, played considerably faster than I tried it this week, is really a continuation of these principles. Good job picking out things to work on this week (pats self on back). We talked about the Grutzmacher a bit:

• flicking finger
• move from position to position, not note-t0-note. Work gestures, add-a-note.
• Shifts: watch arm position. I had a lotta lotta excess movement with each extension, which appeared to be because I didn’t move my whole arm back enough into position before I extended. This needs some mirror work. Use moving with thumb up on fingerboard to assess optimal arm movement. (Next student helped with this by pulling my arm back during the shift. Pretty cool.)
• Think butterfly, easy hand motion, get the motion first and the notes second.
• This is another etude that benefited from memorizing a short section and concentrating on the right hand instead of the left.

T- also recommended I pull out my Starker and work on on of the arpeggio exercises that incorporates rolling hand motions. I didn’t have it with me, so will need to dig it out and post the details on my practice log.

We also briefly discussed the Rachmaninoff Vocalise that I was able to locate in the desired key of c# minor. Rose’s International version is in e minor. Nothing specific, so I now have three weeks until my next lesson to learn that.

First aside. I love these little demonstrations of difficult technical things that are beyond me and have nothing to do with what I am currently studying, and everything to do with what T- or another student is working on. Today’s demonstration was “chromatic arpeggios.” The impetus was the quick, scrubby bowstroke needed for playing a fast, downward chromatic scale, played on one finger, often found in concerti. The “arpeggio” has to do with the hand movement. If you divide the 12 notes in a chromatic scale into four note groupings, you find that your hand moves down a major third each group of four. Therefore, a good way to begin practicing is to target those notes as an arpeggio with the first finger. Then, get your bow moving in that fast detache as you wiggle your finger down the scale, aiming to hit those target arpeggio notes every fourth note. Eventually, the spacing sorts itself out (i.e. you adjust your velocity) to improve the intonation. Very cool.

Second detour. The liberties one of his other students takes with the opening of the Elgar concerto. One of his pet peeves. You must be able to play what the composer wrote in exactly the rhythm notated before you can then bend it.

Third diversion. Navarra. We were talking about playing relaxed, in response to my recent bout of severe muscle cramps while needing to play. T- commented specifically on Navarra, and pulled up a clip on YouTube to demonstrate how quiet his body was when playing, specifically Paganini Moses variations (or something). Yup, quiet. But with a frenetic wrist vibrato and always sharp. (T- can be a little snarky at times.) Observe how his hand is always in the frame. The arm moves as a unit even for half steps.

Cello Lesson

Started with F major. We had a little discussion in the fourth octave about staying “in the groove,” as usual, but today T- demonstrate on my cello and I noticed that where he felt “the groove” on my cello was a little farther from the bridge than he had been suggesting to me. That helped some, and the other thing that I noticed that seemed to help was a very slight difference in my bow hold. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I did something so that I felt like my fingertips were more sensitive and more involved in making micro-adjustments as I was “driving” across the string. Definitely something I want to explore more.

After F major, T- asked for d minor in quarter notes, and was very impressed when I just switched gears and played it. I told him “no sweat – after all, the fingerings are all the same.” That amused him, and after a short discussion of exceptions to the fingering, he asked for f minor. OK. Then eb minor. OK. I think I made some points.

There were a few spots where my face tensed up, usually on the downward shifts. We spent some time with the mirror and using distraction techniques. One thing he asked me to do was sing a note while playing the scale. I think he meant any random tone, but I sang tonic (I do that often while I am practicing) and I think I got a few more points. It did keep the grimaces at bay, too.

On to arpeggios. I can play all three fingerings, but am not so smooth at finding the notes. I’m playing by intervals rather than knowing exactly where I’m going. He suggested in fingering #2 I practice old finger shifts coming down (3-1 3-1, etc) so that I actually ghost the next lower note before playing the upper finger note. That should help keep my hand in the frame. Move the frame, don’t seek with the finger. I do need to spend some time staying oriented, though.

Finally, he asked whether I am practicing thirds (of course) and we went back to F major. Those are coming along, but I’m still awkward on the downward shifts across strings and the first shift into thumb position. We practiced those as gestures today, quickly moving from one position to the next with the metronome to get the feel for the movement as a whole.

Next we applied that approach to the Bach Menuet 1 that we had worked on by simplifying then adding elements last week. Sorry, not quite ready for that, but I can work on it at home. To be truthful, I had hoped to work on something else this week, because I had had no productive practice on that since last lesson. He said something about second Menuet and Gigue for next week, and performing that sometime in the next month, either at an adult recital or (horrors) at a studio class. I guess I have my marching orders.

Cello Lesson

We discussed scales but didn’t play any this week. I wanted to know how T- approached playing multiple scales on those days he just wanted to run through several. Any special order? Transitions? Any fingering snafus I need to watch out for?

Order: start with C, alternate Major and minor, drop a minor third from the Major scale to the next minor, and a major third from the minor scale tonic the the next Major. Turns out that is the order the scales are printed in Klengel, but he plays harmonic minors rather than melodic/natural minor scales as are printed there. The other way to think about them is to start at C and work counterclockwise around the circle of fifths, alternating Major and minor.

Transitions: nothing special.

Fingering: Duport fingerings, no open strings except when starting on C or G. In those cases, play the first three notes, then shift into the pattern. There are a couple of minor scales where he uses an alternate fingering using a higher open string instead of trying to cross strings between ti and do. (I need to work those out and write them down once-and-for-all.)

The majority of the lesson was spent on the first Menuet of the second Bach Suite. I admit, for awhile there I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to play that in a lesson. It was far from performance-ready, but I got through the whole thing with a variety of pauses but pretty decent double stops and shifts. So this became a lesson on transitions.

At the simplest level, we transition every time we move from one note to the next. We move progressively from easy transitions, simply moving from one finger to another in one position, to more difficult ones involving shifts of various sizes, to familiar then unfamiliar positions, into and out of thumb position. There are parallel orders of difficulty with string crossings: crossing to the next string, crossing multiple strings, crossing with an open string between notes (“poppage”), crossing downward (“tunneling”), crossing with a downward extension, crossing with an upward extension, crossing while shifting. Next you have double stops, where simply moving from one pair of notes to the next pair of notes in the same position on adjacent strings make you feel like a beginner again. I think the ultimate transition is playing double stops or chords while crossing *and* shifting. There you go, Menuet I.

A problem with a transition is easily recognized during a play-through. At the simplest level, every error you make is due to a problem with a transition! The trick is to identify the transition, then break it down into it’s smallest component parts and build them back one by one until you play the transition smoothly, then reincorporate it into the flow of the piece.

We worked on just a few of the major difficulties. The opening four notes involve a shift from a chord in first position to a note in fifth position (with no break in sound) to a chord involving a double stop on D-G plus the mid-string harmonic on C played with the 4th finger, to a single note on the D string. That’s at least a lesson right there! But we actually spent more time on m.19, I think, which are consecutive chords that reverse in finger pattern with 3 on A-D and 1 on G to 3 on D-G with 1 on A. I find that very awkward.

It would be fun to write out the preparatory exercises for these measures, but beyond the scope of this post. Maybe I’ll do that during my practice time on this movement this week.

Cello Lesson

We did start off with a scale, though I thought at first we might skip it. I explained that I have been practicing E Major again this week, and T- commented that I should be running through several different scales each day. He accepted my explanation that I have reverted to E in order to spend most of my time learning these double-stopped thirds in 4 octaves.

So of course, that’s what he wanted to hear, but in F, not E. Both good keys for learning thirds, but he expressed a slight preference for F because there are more resonant notes, and only 4 positions on the D and G strings. (He wants 5 positions in E in order to avoid the open A/F# fingering.) He might have said that at the beginning – I’d have been working on F. But no matter, the patterns are the same. For the uninitiated, those patterns are:

• C-G: C-O-O-C (C=closed, O=open, i.e. hand position)
• G-D: C-O-O-C
• D-A: O-O-C-C shift to thumb position in a W-W-W pattern. (W=whole, H=half, as in steps between fingers.) The next octave is 0+2, 1+3 in H-W-W, then 0+2, 1+3 in W-W-H position. Repeat for the 4th octave. Then reverse to come down.

I won’t talk about how long it’s taking me to physically “get it.” There’s a lot more to it than knowing the patterns. So, T- said play F, and don’t worry about the intonation at first, go for the gesture. So, I did, and what did he do? Of course. Commented on the (poor) intonation. I eventually called him on that, though, and we went back to gestures, and I think I did pretty well. Definitely making progress. T- seemed pleased.

Before we went on to the next order of business I asked for consultation on two questions.

1. What fingering does he recommend in the infamous double stop passages in the first movement of the Saint Saens concerto? (Cello Chat fans may recall that this was a topic of discussion there last week.) Barring the double stopped fifths, or playing them 2+3? (I also told him when I asked that I did NOT intend to play it for him this week.) He recommended a combination, barring them to take advantage of harmonics, then 2+3 with accompanying hand twist for the higher ones. Ah. That makes good sense.
2. How should I play a section in the Piu Andante of the 4th mvmt of Brahms’ 1st symphony, annotated as tied dotted half notes with sixteenth note bars? Fluttering fingers or across strings? Answer: across strings, except flutter for the few combinations that can’t be comfortably reached. Approach: start with a smooth double stop, then pulse triplets to each beat. As the pulse gets larger, there will be more string crossing, forming the sextuplets desired. I have had problems doing this up bow, but I think it’s because I still have too much general arm tension. In practice this morning I’m making great progress.

On to Lee #10. Why, oh why, can’t I play these well in my lessons? But I’m learning so much in the effort. Points today were similar to those in previous etudes:

• Bow distribution. The second line especially is very cool.
• Shape the musical line. Play the phrase, don’t type the notes.
• Know how I want to do each shift.

That said, I definitely see improvement over what I was able to do when I started Lee. I think the approach of learning the etude, covering the didactic points in one lesson, reviewing on my own while I learn the next, repeat, is working well. Normally I don’t mind flogging an etude to death forever, but here the teaching points are so similar. It’s nice to feel like by the end of the volume I’ll know a bunch of these pretty well, and all the while my general skills are improving.

As I was packing up to leave, T- said he wants to hear Saint Saens next week, humming the opening motif. I said maybe at about a quarter of that tempo. He said OK. His eyes were smiling. Maybe he was teasing me.

Cello Lesson

When my time with T- is done, I believe I will have learned most of what I will learn from the 4 octave E Major scale. Seriously. Today we divided the time roughly evenly between my scale and the Courante from Bach’s 2nd Suite.

The reason I chose E Major is that I played it exclusively for the first year and a half, and frequently rotate to it now, especially when I am learning something new, like these double-stopped thirds. So I feel confident enough to play it without much practice, like, for instance, this week, when I used all of my scale time on the scale passages in the Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy instead of actual scales.

Today we stopped to focus on the shift into 5th position on the A string, then all of the shifts in the 3d and 4th octaves, and finally the sound quality in the fourth octave. Things I need to watch out for:

• Shift with the forearm, not the hand. This came up when T- noticed I was changing the shape of my hand as I shifted upward in thumb position.
• Bring the thumb up as the 2nd finger goes down.
• If I’m going to have problems with intonation, it’s going to be between E and A on I. Almost always it is because the third is not high enough. Need to spend some time retraining my ear.
• Keep the left elbow high in the downward shift from B on II to C on I, to facilitate clearing the shoulder on the next upward shift.
• Think of the back of the hand as the vibrato motor in thumb positions.
• Keep the bow hair flat.
• If the sound cracks, think of it as the signal to relax my grip (not squeeze more tightly!).
• Practice downward old finger shifts occasionally.
• To keep passive weight from the arm through the bow, think of the elbow making a beeline for the cello on up bow. ******* This was my Aha! moment today. This came up when we were discussing the fact that my tone is worse on slow bowing because I am using too much effort (of the wrong kind) to keep the bow slow.
• Keep the bow “in the groove,” especially when very near the bridge in the 4th octave. We spent some time with the mirror, and my bow was not as straight as I thought it was, at all. More mirror time is needed. The string feels slipperier when it is short, with more tendency to skate upward. This can be countered by more passive arm weight – see “beeline”, above.

A hint for practicing the intonation of a shift: play then practice the same shift in different registers to get the sound of the interval well into your ear. I need to spend some time doing focused practice on each transition. Sounds like I could also benefit from playing single notes continuously until they sound exactly the way I want them to sound.

Courante:

After playing through with multiple stops (flubs) and one major slowdown (but much better than I expected to be able to play it yet) we spent some time practicing “slowly for the bowly.” This involved playing the first note on each bow change, held out for the duration of the bow while speaking the rhythm. That’s a challenge. Worked a bit on the energy of the first two notes, but I did that pretty well so not much time on that. And changed the first chord from the standard bottom up to top down.

T- recommends I work this in very small segments, smoothing out technical glitches then directly to performance speed, because, again, it’s the gesture that’s important.

A bonus from the student ahead of me, working on a sicilienne in preparation for his Oberlin audition: bring out the little note.

Cello Lesson

T called in sick just before I was due to leave for my lesson today, and honestly, I was relieved. I have been working on Lee #9 very well this week, but he usually doesn’t want to hear the same thing two weeks in a row. So ditto for the double stop thirds in my E Major scale, though those are finally coming along with consistent work on 4th finger scales and shift into thumb position section. Also,  none of my Bach movements are really ready for display, though I had intended to do the Saraband if he wanted Bach. And I haven’t even looked at Saint Saens this week. Time to regroup and plan for next week.